Flying Through The Sky

I'm not really sure who decided jumping out of an airplane at 13,500 feet was a good idea. And I'm not sure what exactly possessed me to agree with them. Perhaps it's because skydiving is something I've always thought was cool but never really took an initiative to do, mostly because of cost and because it was just never something that presented itself to me in a realistic way that I'd be able to do it. And perhaps it's because a Groupon came along, which forced me to do it because if I was paying in advance I couldn't chicken out, and who doesn't like to just save money on things?

Did I mention I have a slight fear of falling? Yea, you're probably thinking I'm an idiot for going skydiving where I am literally FALLING THROUGH THE AIR. Hurdling towards earth. Relying on a piece of fabric to prevent me from going kersplat into the ground. I'm the kind of person who if I'm on the 3rd level of the RBC Center, if I look up at the ceiling, I get a hint of vertigo. I'm totally fine with heights, it's more the falling to my death thing that gets me. But in making sure I follow through on my resolution of "being an awesomer Carolyn" I bought the Groupon with zero fear.

In the weeks leading up to this, I didn't once start freaking out and try to figure a way out of it. I just kept getting more and more excited. This is one of those things that I surprisingly never questioned what I was doing. I used the power of imagination to help keep myself calm. I imagined myself flying through the air and just enjoying the scenery. Plus, since you have to jump tandem until you've done it enough times, you don't have much responsibility or things to freak out about, like jumping at the right time, or pulling the parachute, or landing correctly. So I went into this feeling just excited, not scared.

So many people told me I was crazy or they couldn't believe I was doing this. I'm glad none of those people were at the Triangle Skydiving Center in Louisburg, which is where we were jumping from. Everyone there just acted like skydiving was something you do every day...which for most of these people, they do do it almost every day. It helped to keep me calm. It also helped having my friend Kia there to do it with me.

After filling out our paperwork, we suited up (Skydive Suit Up! Five points if you get that), put on harnesses and got briefed on how we jump out of the plane and everything that will happen leading up to it.

Skydiving Tip Number One: Try to make sure you're in the first load. You won't have to wait around for a long time and worry about things getting delayed.

It took us about 12 or so minutes to get up to altitude for jumping. It was such a perfect day. Sunny and not a cloud in the sky. As we were climbing, we had these altimeters that told us what our altitude was. Our tandem jumpers pointed out when it was 6,000 feet. That would be the height we would pull our parachutes. I clearly have no concept of altitude because I felt that we were SUPER high for 6,000 feet in the air. The whole ride up, I just focused on my breathing, deep breathes in and out, in and out. I didn't really look out the window much, just in case it would start to freak me out.

Skydiving Tip Number Two: Breathe. Focus. Meditate. Pray if you want. It'll help keep your nerves calm even though your adrenaline is pumping.

Kia went first, which was fine by me, once we hit about 14,000 feet. I didn't want to watch her jump, just in case that would also freak me out. The only moment of a slight twinge of fear that I had was when I accidentally looked up and saw the back of Kia's tandem guy go out the plane. That made it 100% real. Everything up to that moment didn't bring the realisticness of the situation, but knowing that Kia just went out the plane made me realize I was about to do the same thing.

Twelve seconds later, we were standing at the door. We rocked forward, rocked back, and then rocked forward right out the plane.

I only closed my eyes for the initial jump, but kept them open the rest of the time to make sure I didn't miss a thing. After falling a little, we turned to the right, and then spun to the left. At about 10,000 feet, I threw up the Wolfpack sign because I felt I needed to do something cool.

Yes, I do look terrified. But my screaming was more of a gut reaction because hell, you are flying through the air and all you see is the ground below you. My mouth got super dry because it was freaking cold up there, but in general I stayed pretty warm thanks to the gloves, neck warmer, and helmet.

You really don't feel like you're falling. You just feel like you are flying, because you are! There was no stomach drop feeling, no terror. I felt like a bird, or a plane, or Superman! One thing my tandem guy told me was that until you reach about 2,000 feet above the ground, you don't notice the ground below you getting bigger or closer as you're falling, and that is awesome because it enhances the feeling that you're flying because you don't notice much of a difference.

After about only 60 seconds of free falling, we hit 6,000 feet and it was time to pull the parachute. Thank goodness my guy had to do it because I was not paying enough attention to realize we were already to that point. I couldn't believe how fast it went.

Skydiving Tip Number Three: Eat beforehand, and eat something bland. That way, you don't risk getting a little nauseous when the chute gets pulled. Luckily I thought about this last night and just had some Poptarts for breakfast.

And then we spent about 5 minutes or so just floating along towards the ground. I was able to look around and see downtown Raleigh and even Durham. The whole way down I kept thinking, I can't believe I did it. I just went skydiving. Who would have thunk it?? And then we landed very smoothly and alive most importantly haha.

My adrenaline was rushing for a good hour or two afterwards because it was pretty crazy. But it was one of the coolest things I have ever done. The only bummer out of the whole thing was that the battery for the camera for still photos my video guy had on his head died. But I had the video, which is totally okay because I was able to get stills from it. All I wanted was the proof I did it, in case I never do again.

As far as doing it again? I haven't decided. You'd think the fact that I was able to do it once, I could do it again, but after watching myself go out of the plane, I'm still not 100% sure I could do it again knowing what's actually going to happen. Give me a day or two and maybe I'll be able to give you a better answer on that question. Either way, you should at least do it once. It's such a thrill and it goes by so fast, you don't really realize what's going on until it's over.

I keep thinking all day about what I saw flying through the air. And every time I have to stop and say to myself, "Carolyn. Those are real memories. They're not guesses at what you're going to see. You really saw that!!"

I did edit part of Kia's and my videos together, so to see the awesomeness, here you go! It's not perfect because I didn't want to spend hours editing it, so it starts with Kia, and then kind of restarts with me, but we were on the same load. It was just easier to trim things that way. And yes, I do look slightly crazed and funny and weird, but whatevs! Doesn't bother me because I just jumped out of an airplane!

Sea Salt Brownies

Let me start out by saying that baking while listening to a playlist I made of fun, upbeat songs makes it 20x more fun. It's probably a good thing nobody was around because I'm sure if someone was here and saw me dancing around while whisking some chocolate, they might think I'm crazy. But in reality, I just was in a really good mood and having fun with it. It's been a good week so far, and the second half of it will be even better. Hooray!

So anyways, with the one night I don't have plans this week, I decided to bake some Sea Salt Brownies! I found a love of sea salt in an ice cream with it and caramel (thank you Mary and Whole Foods), and I've been seeing a few other recipes with it in them on Pinterest. I had no real reason to bake these, I just really wanted to after finding sea salt for like, $2 at Trader Joes. I'll be bringing them to some friends tomorrow (including some who are doing something for a good cause, but that's a later post!), so I won't be having brownies sitting around getting uneaten. Of course, since I am baking these a little late in the night, I won't have a picture of one brownie by itself, but maybe I'll update this post later with a picture of one. You'll at least see the full pan, which is really what everyone wants to see anyways, one big block of brownie!

On a side note, I did make a realization the other day. I barely eat anything I bake. I may have a bite or two, or a slice, or a handful of whatever it is, but very rarely do I have baked goods lying around to eat by myself. I either give them to friends or bring them to work. And then I eat Oreos or Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. It's not that I don't like what I bake, it's just...the reason I bake is not to eat it. I bake because it relaxes me, it's fun to be creative, plus it gets people to like me. I'm serious. I've tricked every one of you who are my friends into liking me because I bake for you. Okay. Maybe I'm kidding. But you know that's one of the things you love about me :).

Moving on to the brownies!! Since most of the time my pictures never look that great because of the lighting in my kitchen, I decided to try using the camera on my phone because it's pretty decent. So let me know your thoughts on the photos and I may keep doing them that way :)

You'll want to start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees, and line a 9x9 pan with foil. You'll also want to butter or spray Baker's Joy on the foil so you can easily get the brownies off of it later.

Then on very low heat, you'll want to heat 1.5 sticks of butter (or 12 tablespoons) with about 2 ounces of semi-sweet or un-sweet chocolate that's been chopped. 2 ounces is equal to about 4 tablespoons. Chopping chocolate can be a little annoying, so I find using chocolate chips is a lot easier since they're already small!

Once this is all melted, you'll take it off the heat and then whisk in the rest of the ingredients one at a time. You don't want to dump everything in at once because it'll be harder to make sure everything is incorporated completely.

So first you'll whisk in 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder.

And then 2 cups sugar.

And then 3 eggs. I had mine sitting out to get closer to room temperature, so if the chocolate was still a little warm, you wouldn't have to worry about curdling.

And then 1.5 teaspoons vanilla and 1 cup flour.

Once everything is mixed completely, and the batter looks all fudgy and delicious, you'll pour it into the pan, and then sprinkle 1/2 a teaspoon of sea salt on top of the brownies. Yum!

Then you'll bake them for about 35 minutes until a nice comes out clean.

After you take them out of the oven, let them cool for about an hour, and then put them into the fridge so you can cut them up. That's more for if you're eating them right then. Otherwise, you can probably just let them stay at room temperature until you're ready to cut them up and eat them!

I'll post an update later about how they tasted and possibly a picture of one brownie by itself!

A Couple Book Reviews

So I finished two books today. Yes, two. And not because I was reading them simultaneously or anything, but because it only took me seven hours to finish reading The Hunger Games. Before diving into that book, I'll tell you about the other one I finished, The Postmistress by Sarah Blake.

This book is set in 1941, mostly in a small town near Cape Cod, right before America gets involved in World War II. It focuses mostly on two different woman and their stories. There's Frankie, the "radio gal" who was in London reporting stories back to America about what she saw during the bombings; and there's Iris, the postmistress, who feels a strong connection to making sure the mail goes in and out properly.

Overall, I found the book to be pretty interesting. It was a different take from other World War II books I've read in the past, which focused primarily on either concentration camps, or America after its entered the war, and the sacrifices people made. This book was more about how America was perceiving the war before getting involved, and how everyone didn't fully grasp the severity of what was happening overseas.

Frankie tries to bring it to life, sharing stories of people she meets on trains throughout western Europe who are trying to get away to America from the ghettos. She's trying to get Americans to understand and care about what is happening. Iris tries to keep the stories far away, and just pass the mail along as if what's happening doesn't affect anyone in their small town. I was surprised that the story called The Postmistress didn't seem to have as much of a focus on the postmistress' story.

There were quite a few things that I didn't like about the book (but don't want to spoil anything if you decide to read it), it was just little instances that I didn't think were necessary for the story. I'm never a fan of when an author thinks to add in random events just to shock you in hopes that makes the book more exciting. It was also a little slow moving, and there are a lot of details about the book that I probably wouldn't be able to tell you because I did struggle a little with staying focused on the story. Overall, it was a good book, but not one of the favorites I've read over the years.

However, if you want a book that holds your attention, Holy. freaking. crap. You need to read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

I know that I'm a little behind the ball on this book, and that already a ton of people have probably read it, but if you haven't, DO IT. DO IT RIGHT NOW. It took me seven hours to finish because it was just that good and kept my attention. I had to force myself to put it down and eat some dinner, and I ate pretty fast so I could get back to reading it. The last time I've had a book that I couldn't put down like that was probably Harry Potter. I can't even tell you the last book I read that I just kept thinking about and going over in my head after finishing reading.

Even though so many people had talked about THG and how great it was, I still had zero clue what the story was about. I never had even looked it up for some reason. I figured I would eventually read them considering so many people talk about how great they are (side note: even though I make that statement, it does not apply to Twilight), but I just never got around to looking up what the story was. And then I saw the preview for the movie, and it gave me a small idea of what the books were about, but it still confused me, and most certainly did not give me the full idea of how awesome what I was about to read was.

I won't tell you about the story here, you can use Amazon for that, or just read the books yourself if you haven't already, but I will tell you HOLY CRAP. The intensity of the story, the way it keeps you on edge, the way you realize just how inadequate your survival skills are, makes for such a compelling story. Suzanne Collins paints such a perfect picture that I felt like I was in the arena with Katniss. I felt like I was in her mind, really understanding her conflicts when it came to what she was doing.

Part of me felt like there were hints of some of my favorites books from when I was younger in the story: The Giver and Invitation to the Game. Obviously they're nothing like The Hunger Games, but they had hints which drew me into the story more. I definitely was mad when I got to the last page and there was no more story! Luckily there are two more books in the series and I'll be reading those very soon! 

BYOB Painting!

A few years ago I went to a BYOB painting class and found it to be a lot of fun! You get to paint a pretty picture while drinking wine and hanging out with friends. Three things that are all very fun! At these things, you have an instructor who gives you step-by-step directions to create the painting for that night. So when a Groupon came along for Artistic Abandon, one of the many BYOB painting places to pop up these days, my friends Kia, Kat, and I all bought it and went about selecting our painting from their calendar. 

The problem I have with a lot of the paintings at these places is that they're very...not my style, to put it nicely. But we did find one that would be really nice, and seemed like it would be fairly simple. Now, I am most certainly not an artist, nor will I ever pretend to be. But I also own that, and am willing to show my....not so perfect results. And as a part of this, I am willing to also show you what my painting was intended to look like:

It's mostly splotches...so it really did seem like it would be easy. Not so much. As it turns out, this is one of their hardest 2 hour class paintings. They really should provide warnings, but I went in knowing my painting wouldn't turn out perfect, and it was all about the fun!

I did take my step-by-step pictures, so I'll show you the process!

We drew our horizon line, tree lines, and tree lines for the water portion. We then filled in the sunset sky.

We then started splotching on the trees using red, blue, purple, green, yellow, and some white. Splotches are hard. You don't want to keep them all in a line, you want to do them all over...but the problem I was running into were that my splotches were either too intense, too long, or too....not right.

Kat and Kia hard at work!

 Filling in the second side of trees. Still looks weird to me.

Now, the three splotches were up and down, but the water proved to be much easier because you do those strokes straight across. Which also means longer strokes look better too! You wanted to try to match the colors to the trees too so that it looked like a legit reflection.

My final product! Yea, it's not perfect in the slightest. And I'm not 100% sure if and where I"ll hang it. But frankly, it was a lot of fun, so paying for the entertainment of it was totally worth it, even if the final product isn't amazing.

The three of us and our paintings!

Finishing drying!

I will say, Artistic Abandon has quite a few others I'm interested in doing. And I would probably be willing to pay the full price to do certain ones too....but hopefully another Groupon will come along. Even though the final product wasn't perfect, it was still a great time, and you get to be somewhat creative. I highly recommend you go and check one out if there's one in your town!

Nutella Swirl Bundt Cake

For Christmas this year, one of the gifts my parents got me was a bundt pan! I've been wanting one for awhile, and saving up recipes for when I finally got one. I also did a little pinterest hunting for more recipes too so that I could get as much out of the pan as possible!

And with my lifelong love of Nutella, I stumbled across a Nutella Swirl Bundt Cake, and that sprang to the top of my baking list! Now mine was baked in a 10 cup bundt pan. The recipe I had was for a 6 cup one, so I did 1.5 of the recipe for 9 cups of batter. However, the one problem with this was that it didn't quite fill my pan the way it would have had it been the better amount of batter, but what can you do? So if you have a 6 cup or 12 cup, just do the math accordingly!

Start with 2 cups cake flour, 1.5 tsp baking powder, and a pinch of salt.

In your electric mixer, beat 12 tablespoons softened butter with 1.5 cup sugar. You'll want to beat it for about three minutes under it's nice and fluffy.

Then after scraping down the bowl, add 1.5 tsp vanilla extract.

And three large eggs, one at a time, mixing for about 20 seconds between each addition.

You'll then add 3/4 cup milk and the flour into the batter. You'll want to alternate...starting with milk and ending with flour, and divide everything into thirds to make sure it's all well incorporated.

Now to create the Nutella swirl part of the cake!

You'll want to mix about 1/2 a cup of Nutella (I guestimated whether or not that was 1/2 a cup) with one egg to loosen up the nutella so it's easy to combine with some batter.

You'll then want to mix about 1/3 of your cake batter with the Nutella/egg mixture. I accidentally poured too much in with the Nutella, but oh well, that just means the Nutella section was bigger!

Then after spraying your pan with Baking Joy so it'll be easy to pop the cake out in the end, you'll layer a section of plain batter, then Nutella batter, and then the last of the plain batter.

And then take a knife and create the swirl!

You'll want to bake it at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes (until a knife stuck in the cake comes out clean) and cool it in the pan for 15 minutes before popping it out and letting it finish cooling on a rack!

I didn't get a good angle of it, but my cake puffed up kind of funny on the "bottom" part, so it looked a little like a UFO!

Mmmm just look at that swirl! I brought some to some of my friends, and then took the rest of the cake to work. I take the fact that it all pretty much disappeared by 10 in the morning as a good sign that it was delicious to people other than me!

Apocalypse! What's Your Last Meal?

I've been catching up on my DVR, which includes some episodes of the new talk show, The Chew. I've recently started watching it, mostly because I love cooking/baking and also because of Clinton Kelly (plus a friend recommended it to me!). On their last episode of 2011, they focused on what they would want their last meal to be since the world is going to end in 2012. Of course, that got me thinking as to what my last meal would be if I really had to choose! 

Part of the reason I'm writing this is because of my secret desire to be on "Best Thing I Ever Ate" on Food Network, plus it's a fun thing to think about (not the end of the world, but your absolute favorite foods)!

Now, I couldn't narrow it down to just one meal, so I decided to list what I would want for each meal during the day! (plus, I'll add in some snacks....what? I can't make decisions!). I also think I need three stomachs to cover my best foods, but at least if I just eat half of everything, I'll be fine.

Breakfast/Brunch: Ham and goat cheese omelette (The Flying Biscuit has awesome goat cheese for their omelettes), and a belgian waffle with fresh strawberries and whipped cream (from Brigs! I've eaten one of these in five minutes they're so delicious).

Lunch: Chicken and Cheese Pita (from Greek Fiesta) with kettle chips and ranch dressing from Raleigh Times for dipping the chips. I know it's nothing fancy, but it's delicious...and I don't know what restaurants do to their ranch dressing to make it SO much better than what's in the bottle, but it's always perfection.

Snack: Cheese cubes. Seriously. That's all I need. There is just something about some cheese cut into cubes. I guess I could throw in some club crackers, but really, all I need is some cheese.

Appetizer: Bloomin' Onion from Outback. Mmmm my mouth is just watering thinking about that deep fried goodness and whatever that dipping sauce is!

Dinner: Now, my favorite dinner foods are really ones that can be made at home...mostly because there's nothing better than a good homemade meal! Filet mignon (grilled to perfection of course), homemade macaroni and cheese (preferably my grandmother's), twice baked potatoes, sweet potatoes with a marshmallow topping, green bean casserole, deviled eggs, my grandmother's rolls, plus I guess a Caesar salad (Mellow Mushroom's is incredible to me) to add a bit of healthiness (which....it's the end of the world, why do I care about being healthy??) I would never be able to eat all that, but like I said, it's all about getting a taste of my favorite foods!!

Dessert:  Strawberry Chocolate Chip concrete from Goodberry's and one of my Apple Butter Bars. My absolute favorite ice cream combo (scratch that, any combo) is strawberry and chocolate....and when Goodberry's has it as their flavor? YES PLEASE. And even though I bake a lot, the only thing I would ever bake for myself to just eat is Apple Butter Bars. I could eat a whole pan of them by myself. Everything else I eat a tiny bit and give whatever it is to other people. 

Drink: I'd finish everything off with a Pineapple Upside Down Cake martini from Natty Greene's. They're delicious!! Throughout the day I would probably be drinking Dr. Pepper because it really is the best soda ever. 

So there's my list! What would you eat on your last day??

New Years Resolutions

In general, I think New Years resolutions are pretty cheesy. They always end up being something that people claim they'll do, and maybe they'll do it for like a month, but then old habits set in. In general the idea is good, new year, new start, lots of hope for what you want to accomplish with your life, but a lot of times people seem to set unrealistic goals that they never intend on continuing through the year.

The most common resolution: working out. Never go to a gym in January.

With that being said, considering the rough end to my 2011, but the fact that I'm feeling very hopeful and confident about the future, I have decided to make some New Years resolutions. Well, it's mostly one resolution, but I'll give you the list of how I'm intending to make my resolution happen.

My New Year's Resolution: Be A More Awesome Carolyn. 

Pretty simple right? Here's how I intend to accomplish this:

• Go skydiving! 
• I already have my Groupon purchased, so this will be accomplished sometime in the next couple months.
• Move to Washington D.C. 
• I'm ready to live somewhere new, and I've already gotten a head start on this by starting my job hunt a couple months ago. Hopefully I'll be able to make this happen sooner rather than later.
• Read really good and interesting books.
• Suggestions welcome!
• Discover new and awesome music.
• Suggestions welcome!
• Bake something really difficult, with lots of steps and fancy ingredients.
• Also in the same vein, work on my decorating skills
• Create some crafty thing where I'm not saying "well, it isn't perfect, but..."
• Pinterest will help with this I'm sure
• Go to the flea market more in search of interesting plates for my future plate wall
• Helpers welcome!
• Go some place I've never been.
• Montreal is high on my list, as well as a lot of places in South America and Europe...but staying in the realistic mind, Montreal is probably going to be my most affordable option.
• Have really good conversations about anything and everything.
• Whether this be with new people I meet or old friends, and this means I need to read more than just headlines so I fully understand what's going on in the world, and listening to more NPR.
• Just live my life like a good and positive person should. 
• No more negativity, no more dealing with bullshit, enjoying my life as much as I can, even if it's mundane things like just sitting on the couch watching TV.

I think that's a pretty good list! Now, I just need to make sure I can check things off before December 12, 2012 seeing as how that's when the world is supposed to end. 

Happy New Year everyone! Here's to 2012!